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Amazon hits back over Lemonade claims it is trying to “poach” staff

Amazon denies claims by US insurance start-up Lemonade, which is an Amazon Web Services user, that it is trying to “poach” its staff

An Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesperson has refuted claims made by Lemonade co-founder and chief executive Shai Wininger that Amazon is “poaching” the start-up’s staff. Lemonade is a customer of AWS.

Wininger’s comments, which he made in a public LinkedIn post, suggested that the New York-based renters’ insurance provider may now consider leaving AWS.

Wininger commented: “Just learned that Amazon is actively targeting and trying to poach Lemonade Inc. employees. I wonder if that’s their idea of supporting the startup ecosystem. Reconsidering Amazon AWS.”

However, an AWS spokesperson confirmed that it has not made any hires from Lemonade, and denied that it was “specifically targeting” its customers for potential employees.

Instead, the spokesperson said that Amazon’s recruitment strategy is based on “job-related skills and expertise, not the current employer.”

The full AWS statement reads: “We have many open positions around the world and recruit talent based on job-related skills and expertise, not the current employer. While we have employees that leave Amazon for other companies and vice versa, ‎we haven’t built the type of customer base we have by specifically targeting our customers’ employees for hire – we focus our attention on helping our customers create great businesses on AWS. We’ve also looked back over the past year, and we are unaware of any hires AWS has made from the companies making these claims.”